Combined nail-puller and scraper.



W. P. HOBBS. COMBINED NAIL FULLER AND SGRAPBR. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 22, 1911.

1,082,952, Patnted Dec. 30, 191 3.

I WITNESSES:

' ATTORNEY To all whom may concern UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

i wILLIs r. HOBBS, or BRIDCEP RTQ CONNECTICUT.

COMBINED NAIL-FULLER, AND SCRAPEB.

Be it known that I, WILLIS F. HOBBS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, county .of Fairfield, State of Connecticut, have invented an Improvementin'Combined Nail-Pullers and Scrapers, of which the following is a specification,

This invention relates to the class of nail pullers in which a sliding head or hammer is dispensed wit-h and all parts. are rigidly secured in place, and is an improvement upon the nail puller described and claimed in my former ,Letters Patent Number 900,016, dated September 29, 1908.

I have noted a requirement of the trade that a scraper should be combined with a nail puller and a hammer, that the tool should be rigid and strong and able to stand the hardest kind of usage and' thatit should be so simple in construction and economical in. cost as to enable it to be retailed at a price placing it within the reach of all, especially small shippers and all shippers who use second hand boxes or barrels upon which addresses have been painted; the requirement being, in brief, for a simple,

strong and inexpensive tool with which boxes and barrels can be opened or closed rigid.

and by. which addresses :and other marks uponboxes and barrels can be removed.

With these and other objects in view I have devised the novel combined nail puller and scraper which I will now describe, re- I ferring to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and using reference characters to indicatethe several parts.

Figure 1 is a view of the implement in position for use as a nail puller; and Fig. 2 is a side elevation corresponding therewith. The tool asa whole comprises simply a claw, a hammer, a scraper and a handle combined in compact form and perfectly 10 denotes a'bar of metal, ,at one end of which a cla'w 11 is formed by flattening the metal of the bar, tapering the opposite sides to a dull edge, tapering the edges thereof outwardand providing the usual V-shaped opening, indicated by 12. For convenience in use, the claw is preferably curved slightly, as shown in Fig- 2. Back of the claw and on the underside of the bar when in position for use as a-nail puller is a hammer 13 which also serves as a fulcrum when Patented Dec. 30, 1913.

A drawing nails. This hammer is forged block which is provided with a shank, referably elongated in the direction 0 the length of the bar, engaging a correspondingly shaped opening in the bar, the shank serving as a rivet for the hammer and being headed down upon the upper side of the bar and the elongation of the shank preventing the hammer from turning or from becoming loose.

14 denotes the scraper which is formed by flattening and tapering a piece of-metal to an edge in substantially the manner that the claw is formed upon the bar. The operative portion of the scraper is bent upward and backward from a line vertical to the bar, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, leaving a shank 15 which is rigidly secured to the bar by rivets 16. In practice the scraper is preferably placed midway between the claw and the hammer. The handle is preferably formed by strips of wood, indicated by 17 and 18, lying on opposite sides of the bar, said strips being rigidly secured to the bar by rivets 19. The forward end of wooden' strip 17 is shown as abutting against the rear end of the shank of the scraper and the forward end of strip 18 is shown as tapered down to the plane of thebar. The edges of strips 17 and 18 are preferably rounded for'convenience in handling. Any style of handlemay be used although I preferably use a handle formed from two strips of wood riveted to the bar.

7 The ordinary operation in opening a box is as follows: The cover is started by forcing the claw between the cover and the top of the box and prying the coverupward. The claw may or may not straddle a nail, but in the event that it does not straddle a nail the scraper 14 will serve as a guard or stop to prevent the claw from being forced too far inwardly. The cover is then struck a blow with the hammer which drives the cover downward, leaving the heads of the nails above the cover. The claw is then inserted under the heads of the nails, the shanks of the nails lying in the V-shaped opening, and the nails are drawn by pressing downward upon the handle, the hammer being so located as to serve as a positive fulcrum. The strips of wood which cover the sides of the handle add stiffness and rigidity to the tool and makeit possible to provide a strong and serviceable tool of very I much lighter weight than could be produced would have'to be'hardened and tempered as a whole and it would be impossible to pro- 1 duce in that mannera claw and'a scraper properly tempered to stand the severe strain of use. It will also be noted that the shank of the scraper extends over the hammer 13, serving the double function of reinforcing' bar 10 and preventin any loosening of the hammer in an upwar direction.

In practice the working parts are first hardened in the usual manner and afterward the temper is drawn by heating to the proper degree.

Having thus described 'my invention I claim: i

A'scraper attachment for a claw bar having a flat shank and a hammer head passing through said shank, comprising a metal blade flattened and tapered to an edge. and bent to provide a flat shank disposed at approximately right angles with relation to said blade, and means for attaching the shank of the scraper to the shank of the bar on .each side of the hammer head with the scraper blade extending transversely and immediately in therearof the notch of said claw bar, whereby the scraper blade forms a stop for the claw bar and the scraper shank serves as a backing ifor the hammer head. In testimony whereof I atfik my signature in presence of two witnesses;

.WILLIS F. HOBBS.

Witnesses:

A. M; Woos'rnR, S. W. ATHERTON. 

